Ginuwine Tropnas/Photo by Noah Clooten
A disappointing season calls for new faces.
The Lake Region State College men’s basketball team didn’t have the season it wanted last year. Yes, there was the emergence of Blessed Barhayiga, who’s now playing for Wingate University. And freshman Ginuwine Tropnas averaged nearly 10 points and nine rebounds per game.
But the Royals went just 9-22 overall and 5-16 in conference play. It was their second straight losing season after a solid 2021-22 campaign.
Jared Marshall, now entering his 10th season as head coach of the Royals, has been working tirelessly on the recruiting trail to bring a change this year.
“It’s a lot,” Marshall said. “You’re talking to a couple hundred kids at a time, all the time… At our level, you’ve gotta cast such a wide net because you’ve gotta be on top of everything all at once.”
The recruiting process, which has been in full swing since around Christmas of last year, has brought in 11 new men’s basketball players to don the Royal blue. There are nine freshmen, along with a pair of sophomore transfers. And it has Marshall feeling “cautiously optimistic” about this group.
“I feel really good about it,” Marshall said. “I like a lot of the freshmen that came in. We brought in some older guys to help us kind of stay old and balance us a little bit.”
The two transferring sophomores are Antonio Speed and Bronson Chambers. Speed, a Minneapolis native, comes from Peru State College of the NAIA. Chambers, meanwhile, originally hails from Canada and got limited playing time last year for CSU Monterey Bay, a Division II school.
“I expect Bronson Chambers to be a big part of what we’re doing this year,” Marshall said. “He’s gonna be a really good player for us.”
Marshall mentioned Poet Davis, Alvin Payne and Ron Lee as freshmen he expects to count on as well. He believes they should mesh well with Tropnas, the top returner for LRSC.
“We have a lot of personalities this year,” Tropnas said. “And I find it fun. Because it’s deeper than just basketball. And outside of the court, we’re always hanging out with each other, always making jokes, having fun.”
Despite the players coming from so many different places, Marshall said, it helps that there are core groups from each area, with many of the kids already knowing each other. The roster features six players from Minnesota, four from Canada, three from Australia and two from North Dakota.
“That helps, and just spending time together and going on road trips,” Marshall said. “When we went down to Iowa for our scrimmages, we went to this place called Smash Park. There’s video games, pickleball, darts, bags [cornhole], and a lot of different activities. Just doing things like that to try and bring us together.”
On the court, Tropnas was the third-most productive scorer on last year’s team (9.9 ppg), behind the now-graduated Barhayiga and Noah Bonick. Tropnas was the team’s most productive rebounder (8.5 rpg).
But he still isn’t satisfied with his performance, which could only do so much for a team at the bottom of the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference.
“Be more consistent — that’s my main objective,” Tropnas said. “I had a good year stat-wise, but I could have done better. Because there were some games that I used to have, like 25 points, and then the other game, it would be just five points. So as a leader, I have to be consistent in everything I do.”
Marshall also wants to see Tropnas step up, particularly in his scoring. The team won’t have the luxury of Barhayiga, who averaged 14.8 points per game in his sophomore season.
“I think he brings a different skillset than Blessed,” Marshall said. “Blessed, we could rely a lot more on scoring with. But I think Ginuwine brings defense. I mean, he set the Lake Region blocks record last year… He covers up for a lot of our defensive issues early right now while we’re still trying to figure everything out. And offensively, he’s really stepped it up, and we’re doing a few more things to help him be more effective on offense.”
Tropnas said that Marshall has really helped him on defense, especially in limiting his foul trouble. And now, with a year under his belt, Tropnas said he feels more confident in taking on a larger leadership role this year.
“Even though I was one of the main guys, I didn’t have that leadership status,” Tropnas said. “So this year, I’ll let it be known that I’m willing to be a good leader for my team so they could see a good example.”
Besides Tropnas, LRSC only returns three players: Isaac Warhust, Mat Mudingay and Mitch Leas. All three were non-starters, though they all contributed at various points in the season.
The team hasn’t quite figured out how they fit in with all the new faces.
“Our roles are still pretty undefined right now,” Marshall said. “It’s a good problem to have because I trust all 15 guys, and I can see all 15 guys out there playing, helping, contributing. But it’s also tough because you can’t play 15 guys in a game and be successful. And so I can see those three guys having their moments and stepping up and hopefully having bigger roles.”
Warhurst, an Australia native, was used sparingly for most of the season but got a lot of minutes in the final four games. He scored 23 points over the final three games of the season. Mudingay’s strength is defense, while Marshall sees Leas as a “knockdown three guy.”
How much playing time they get this year, on a crowded bench, will depend on their continued day-to-day progression. At the very least, the familiarity they bring is helpful for Tropnas, who doesn’t have to be completely alone as a returner.
“I like it because we’re already on the same page,” Tropnas said. “And what we learned last year, we could show it to the new people. And not only me, but Matt, Isaac and Mitch showing leadership.”
As a team, the Royals were in the bottom 10 of the entire NJCAA in turnovers and three-point shooting last year. The stats don’t go unnoticed for Marshall, who’s making an effort to change the team’s style of play this season.
“We’re a lot more athletic,” Marshall said. “We’re not as big as last year, so we’re gonna have to get up and down a little bit more, and we’re gonna have to put up some more threes and make more threes. That’s been a strength of ours so far in the scrimmages, is making threes… Turning it over is gonna be another big issue, and rebounding as well. We’re not as big. We’re not gonna be able to control the glass. And it’s not gonna be able to have two guys like G[inuwine] and Blessed rebound and do everything… All of our guys are gonna have to rebound.”
Alongside Marshall, the team brings back Channing Reed, back for his third season as assistant coach. Reed is a former LRSC basketball player himself who went on to play for Minot State University.
“Having Channing back for his third year has been huge for us,” Marshall said. “I haven’t had a returning assistant until we had Channing on board. Having his familiarity with how I like to do things, and the way we like to do things, is huge. Especially with him playing here and having the experiences that these guys had… He was able to play at a four-year level at Minot State after, and get to a level a lot of these guys are trying to achieve. And so he can have those shared experiences and relate to the guys.”
The Royals also welcome in Winder Joseph, a first-year assistant coach who will be helping with both the men’s and women’s teams. The Florida native spent two years at Coalinga College, a JUCO in California. He then spent three years playing for Mayville State University, and most recently played a year professionally in Spain.
“Winder’s fresh out of playing,” Marshall said. “He’s got those same experiences. These two guys can really relate to what they’re going through.”
For Marshall, he’s been through this before too, as a coach. He’s now reached a decade as the LRSC men’s basketball head coach, plus another year before that as an assistant. He knows what it’s like to win and what it’s like to lose.
“It’s something different every year,” he said. “Every team’s different because you’re bringing in so many new guys every single year at this level. And they’re all freshmen and sophomores, and they’re all trying to move on and get out and things like that… You have to be adaptable as a coach and change the way you want to do things to fit the personnel.”
Another LRSC basketball season begins Friday, Nov. 1, with a contest against the defending Region XIII champion, North Dakota State College of Science. The Royals have three games over the weekend as part of the Buster Gillis Mon-Dak Pre-Conference Tournament in New Town. They first play at home on Nov. 8, and begin their conference schedule on Jan. 5.
“I just love it,” Marshall said. “I love the promise, the potential, that the season can bring. Like I said, we’re cautiously optimistic. We haven’t played up to our standards the last two years, and that’s something we’ve worked really hard to change, to get us back to being where we’re expected to be from our alumni, our fans, our people.”
